


Public Welfare Service 


Bulletin No. 3 


(Third Edition) 


teh (ARLLOP fF 
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VIVERKS : N 


THE ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 


A Brief History and Account of the Method of Operation of 
Electric Transportation Systems 


For Use of School Students, English and 
Current Topics Classes and Debating Clubs 


Issued by 


ILLINOIS COMMITTEE on PUBLIC UTILITY INFORMATION 
125 South Clark Street - . Chicago, Illinois 





STATISTICS SHOWING DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 


The Beginning: 
The first complete electric car system was es- 
tablished in 1888 at Richmond, Va. 


The Present: 

There are 44,400 miles of electric railway lines 
in the United States providing quick transporta- 
tion for the public; enough trackage to circle 
the earth twice. 

There are more than 107,000 electric cars in 
service. 

There are 18,000 miles of interurban lines con- 
necting small towns and cities and serving the 
farming communities. 

More than $5,000,000,000 has been invested in 
electric railway property, this coming from ap- 
proximately 550,000 investors—men, women, in- 
surance companies, savings banks, etc. 

Over 300,000 employes, this including motor- 
men, conductors, shop men, track men and exec- 
utives, are needed to keep the electric railways 
operating, and probably as many again are em- 
ployed in industries manufacturing equipment 
and supplies. 


How Riding Has Increased: 


In 1890, citizens of the country took an aver- 
age of but 32 rides per year per inhabitant. 

In 1902 the number was 61 rides per inhabi- 
tant; in 1907, it was 85; in 1912, it was 100; in 
1917 it was 109 and in 1922 it was 114. This con- 
stant increase is largely due to the fact that 
workers need transportation back and forth every 
working day of the year and electric railways are 
the most economical, safe and reliable form avail- 
able, they operating in winter or summer, night 
or day, and in good or bad weather. 

In 1922 more than fifteen billions of riders 
were carried by the electric railways of the coun- 
try, or about eight times the population of the 
earth. : 


How Electric Railways Have Improved: 


As compared with railways of only a few years 
ago those of today have heavier, smoother 


track; larger, more comfortable, better-lighted, 
better-heated, speedier cars; maintain a more fre- 
quent and regular schedule and generally reach 
every section of the city they serve and the sur- 
rounding country, adding not only to conveni- 
ence, but to all property values. 


Why Fares Vary: 


Electric railways can be operated cheaper in 
some cities and localities than others. 

The cost of operating an electric railway varies, 
depending much on local conditions. 


The cost of operating a railway increases— 

When it is necessary to hold crews, cars and 
power equipment in reserve for “rush hour” 
business, as is the case in the cities or indus- 
trial districts. 

When cars are only partly filled outside of 
“rush hours.” 

When the average ride each passenger takes 
is long. 

When vehicular and other traffic is allowed 
to interfere with the progress of cars and other 
unnecessary stops are forced. 

When coal for generating power is not avail- 
able near at hand and it is necessary to haul it 
long distances. 

When routes traversed by the cars are hilly 
and require much electric energy to move 
them. 

When the snowfall to be handled is heavy. 

When there is insufficient traffic to justify a 
frequent service, or where they are forced to 
compete with other forms of unregulated and 
irregular transportation. 


Electric Railways in Illinois: 


Illinois is served by 90 electric railway com- 
panies. They have 3,840 miles of track. 
Stretched out on a straight line these tracks 
would reach from New York to San Francisco 
and then on out 655 miles into the Pacific Ocean. 
The tracks and equipment cost over $456,000,000. 


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“RIDING ON LIGHTNING” 


How the electric railway has grown from an experiment to a carrier of 15,000,000,000 riders a 
year in the United States alone, all within the space of three decades. 


Introductory: 


The people of America are very insistent upon 
getting to a place quickly, and being comfortable 


- while they are going. Men and women who can 


remember conditions forty years ago find much 
amusement in recalling the way people traveled 
in cities and towns then. It is laughable today 
to recall the time when the first horse cars op- 
erated in a community, but after the first sur- 
prise and joking had disappeared it was found 
that this mode of travel was really a great aid in 
getting around. But it was far from being the 
kind of travel the people desired. 


Inefficient as the early systems were, compared 
with the present day equipment, they marked a 
mighty advance, and thereupon there started a 
new era in city development. From that early 
day to this, as there have been new discoveries 
in electrical science, the best brains of the elec- 
trical field have applied these new findings to the 
creating in America of what is today the best 
electric railway transportation in the world. 


Not a Simple Problem: 


But with all this marvelous development, the 


problem of supplying a community with local 


transportation service is one of the most complex 
and difficult which human ingenuity has been 
called upon to solve. Cities have increased in 
population so rapidly—encouraged in the main 
by this very improved method of travel—that in 
no large city in the world has a system of local 
transportation been developed that has proved 
entirely adequate. 


How Electric Railways Developed: 


The electric railway is a recent gift of science 
to mankind?’ About three decades cover its life 
of service. Only so late as 1888 did the building 
of trolley lines become practical upon a commer- 
cial scale. Prior to that there had been fifty years 
of groping and experiment and disappointment; 
fifty years of indifference and skepticism on the 
part of the public and people having money 
to invest. But the instant electricity got a chance 
to prove itself, development leaped forward. Sel- 
dom has the world seen so remarkable a growth. 

When Frank J. Sprague, at Richmond, Va., in 
1888, established the first complete electric car 


system, there were but nineteen electric lines in 
the world, ten of these in the United States. The 
combined electric trackage of the two hemi- 
spheres was only sixty miles. Yet, within twelve 
months after operation began at Richmond in 
1888, fifty companies were in existence in the 
United States alone and forty miles of electric 
railway track in this country had grown to 100 
miles. Within another twelve-month the num- 
ber of companies had quadrupled and the mileage 
had increased about 1,200 per cent. At the end 
of the third year there were 275 American com- 
panies and 2,250 miles of electric railway track. 
The fifth year saw 606 companies in existence 
and 7,470 miles of track in use, and at the end of 
the sixth year after the Richmond demonstration 
there were 880 companies in business and 10,860 
miles of single track were in operation or under 
construction. Today the United States can boast 
of 44,400 miles of electric city, town and _interur- 
ban electric railway track. 


First Practical System: 


The Virginia system was not the first prac- 
tical electric railway installation. Successful 
short lines were already in operation at Cleveland 
and at Kansas City. But they had failed to re- 
ceive wide attention and did not constitute a real 
demonstration of what electricity could do. 
Much of Sprague’s success was probably due to 
the fact that he was the first technically trained 
man to enter the field and the first to gain ade- 
quate financial backing. Yet he had his struggles. 

It was only after two years of effort in New 
York that Sprague turned to Richmond. With 
Leo Daft and others he had tried to convince the 
metropolitan “L” officials of New York that elec- 
tricity was better than steam. He proposed the 
electrification of the various elevated railway 
lines of New York in 1885 and was given a chance 
to experiment on the Thirty-fourth street branch 
in 1886, but nothing further was done in New 
York. 

Sprague then formed the Sprague Electric 
Railway and Motor Co. and secured contracts for 
construction of lines at Richmond, Va., and at St. 
Joseph, Mo. The Richmond system came _ into 
operation in February, 1888, with forty motor 
cars—against the fifty cars that all other Amer- 
ican traction lines combined could boast. The 
Sprague cars at first. operated with a sliding con- 


tract on an overhead wire, but later adopted the 
trolley wheel. The motor used was really the 
parent of the electric railway motor of today. 


Achievement Was Remarkable: 


In judging the significance to mankind of the 
Richmond achievement, the reader should bear 
in mind two facts: that the electric railway has 
made the large city possible and that, in the coun- 
try, it has opened up millions of acres that would 
otherwise have been beyond the reach of home 
owners. 

In the city, in fact, the average citizen can 
thank the electric car alone for his right to own 
a home. Without rapid transit the city dwellers 
would have to cling, like a swarm of bees, close 
round the center of employment. Rentals would 
be at unheard of levels and real estate values so 
high that only the wealthy could own and build. 
Towering tenements would shut out sunshine 
and health. Only by reason of rapid transit, as 
we know it today, can the city spread out and 
make possible miles of inexpensive and desirable 
homesites. 


Interurban Worked Wonders: 


In the country, in the same way, the interurban 
line, through its rapid, cheap and frequent sery- 
ice, has done wonders in bringing, about a better 
distribution of the population. Small town resi- 
dents have been enabled to move out to the 
farms, new villages have grown up and suburban 
acreage property and suburban residential cen- 
ters have been brought close to the city worker. 


Yet this service has become a fact almost with- 
out the people being aware of its progress. From 
the day when the first electric motor crept along 
the rails to the present, the public has given a 
hundred-fold more thought to transient develop- 
ments than to this great revolutionary develop- 
ment. Today the people accept electric railway 
service as a matter of course. Few pause to think 
what the life of the nation would be without the 
electric car. ? 

In 1835 the electric transportation system of 
the world consisted of a big idea in the head of 
one country blacksmith, and a small model car 
in his hands. Today, in the United States alone, 
300,000 men and women are required to operate 
the street cars and interurbans. These electric 
lines of the United States have cost $5,000,000,000 
and each year carry almost 15,000,000,000 per- 
sons, or about eight times the total population 
of the earth. If all of the passengers wished to 
ride at the same time, 1,648,515 cars would have 
to be coupled together to accommodate them. 


Tragedies in Early History: 

The early history of electric transportation 
abounds in tragedies of futile and unrewarded 
effort. Beginning with no technical knowledge 
-—the best universities of the world could have 


given them none—the pioneers in the field groped 
forward. A life of such labor, all too often, 
brought no results. But here and there a mite 
of knowledge was added to the world’s store. 


Two among many such workers may be named. 
They were Thomas Davenport of Brandon, Vt., 
and George F. Green of Kalamazoo, Mich. To 
Davenport, the country blacksmith already men- 
tioned, America owes the honor of having origin- 
ated electric traction. Davenport was poor and 
uneducated, but in six years of struggle he made 
a hundred electric motors and at last saw his 
model roll forward on its circular track. He ex- 
hibited a small car at Springfield, Mass., and later 
at Boston. But his principle was wrong and, © 
beyond giving the world an idea, his work was 
futile. 

George F. Green was likewise a mechanic. He 
began work in 1875 but only gained tardy recog- 
nition from congress in 1891. Too poor to buy 
essential parts of the machines he would have 
built, or to hire a patent attorney, he struggled 
on and added valuable contributions to scientific 
knowledge. 


The Early Inventors: 


Electric traction, on its mechanical side, has 
seen two periods of development. The first, or 
experimental period, brought tip dead against the- 
stone wall of wrong methods. A second period 
followed in which, profiting by the lessons 
learned, the industry achieved final technical suc- 
cess. 

The first period began, of course, when Fara- 
day, in 1821, discovered that electricity could be 
used to produce mechanical motion. Eleven 
years later Henry discovered the first motor and 
three years after that Davenport showed the 
world that electricity could be made to drive a 
car along the rails. 

Next came Robert Davidson of Aberdeen, a 
Scotchman, and took from America the honor of 
producing the first electric car to run on a stand- 
ard gauge track. This was in 1838, only three 
years after Davenport’s work became known. 
The car made several successful runs over a 
steam road. 


Dynamo Made Success Possible: 


As early as 1841 the idea of using rails as cur- 
rent conductors was patented. In 1855 an En- 
glishman, in trying to bring about telegraphic 
communication with moving trains, gave us in its 
first form what is today the trolley wire and pole. 
In the same year, in France, both the insulated 
trolley and the central station current supply 
were suggested. In 1861 Pacinnoti, in Europe, 
invented the reversible continuous current dyna- 
mo upon which all modern generators and mo- 
tors are founded. 


It was the invention of the dynamo that 
brought an end to the first period and made final 


success possible. The twenty-six long years of 
effort between Davenport and Pacinnoti had 
been wasted. They in themselves constitute one 
of the tragedies of industry. Prior to the dyna- 
mo the primary battery system used was not 
commercially practical. No progress could be 
made. 

Having now, by 1861, all the underlying princi- 
ples of electric traction, it seems odd to the reader 
of today that so many years had to pass before 
commercial results were obtained. For it was 
1879 before the first practical electric line was 
operated, and, as said heretofore, 1888 had come 
before the construction of electric roads on a 
commercial scale became possible. But the 
length of time elapsed is the measure of the dif- 
ficulty of the problem. 

It was in Germany, not America, that the first 
practical line was operated. In the late ’70’s Sie- 
mens, a German, and Edison and Stephen D. 
Field, Americans, filed claims for patents within 
three months of one another. Field, having been 
the first to enter preliminary papers, was given 
the honor. But Field did not get his line into 
operation before 1880, whereas the German began 
carrying passengers at the Berlin exposition in 
1879. Siemens’ motor could haul eighteen per- 
sons in three small trailers along a one-third 
mile track at the rate of nearly eight miles an 
hour. He used the third rail method. 

The first line operated outside an exhibition 
ground was also in Germany. This was at Lich- 
terfelde, near Berlin, in 1881. It was one and a 
half miles long and its motor could carry thirty- 
six passengers at the rate of thirty miles an hour. 
The line is still in existence. It was in the same 
year, also, that between Charlottenburg and 
Spandau, the first effort was made to offer com- 
petition to the street car horse. 

The first exhibitions of electric traction in the 
American western states were by Charles J. Van 
Depoele, a Belgian sculptor and inventor, who is 
said to have been the first to actually draw ctr- 
rent from an overhead wire, and by Edison and 
Field, who operated a line in the gallery of the 
American Railway exposition in 1882 and 1883. 
Van Depoele made experimental installations in 
a number of western towns. 


First American Line: 


It was in 1884, however, that the first practical 
electric line in America began business. This 
was in Cleveland. A two-mile track was oper- 
ated there with an underground trolley sliding in 
a slotted wooden box. It was there that the 
street car horse, had he been able to read, would 
have first noted the writing on the wall. 


In Kansas City in 1884 a line was built, the 
projector of which has the right to share with 
Sprague the honor of having introduced modern 
standard practice. His name was J. Henry. His 
was the second practical installation’ in the 
United States. Henry’s line is said to have given 
us the trolley rope and the word “trolley.” This 


was a corruption of “troller,” the little four- 
wheeled carriage that ran on the wire and trans- 
mitted the current, through a flexible cable, to 
the car. Before the introduction of the trolley 
rope it was necessary to have a small boy ride 
on top of each car. Henry overcame great ob- 
stacles in bringing his enterprise to success. He 
had to use horseshoe nails in bonding the rails 
and copper wire for the trolley supply was then 
to be had only in sixty foot lengths. 

The rapid introduction of the interurban, be- 
ginning in 1894, gave the nation a new method of 
travel. Indianapolis was the first “trolley me- 
tropolis.” Indiana today has 2,323 miles of elec- 
tric railway. Illinois has 3,840 miles, of which, 
in round numbers, 1,200 are in Chicago. Ohio 
has 3,999. Michigan has 1,526 miles, Wisconsin 
849 miles, and Iowa 784 miles. The middle west 
leads in this development. 

While the great service of the electric roads 
has been in the transportation of passengers it 
should not be forgotten that they also carry 
freight. Many are actively competing with steam 
roads. In the future it is expected, also, that they 
will play a larger part in the express and mail 
service. 

So efficient has electric operation proved, that 
a number of steam railroads have adopted it for 
use in city terminals and on mountain divisions. 
The electrification at New York is the best ex- 
ample of the first, and the Chicago, Milwaukee 
& St. Paul’s Puget Sound line of the second. 


Chicago’s Transportation History: 


The Chicago traction system is a typical illus- 
tration of urban development. In 1860, the Chi- 
cago citizen could get but one mile’s ride for his 
fare. In 1922 he could ride thirty-three miles. 

Chicago’s first transportation enterprise was 
an omnibus line. This was in 1853. The first 
horse car line, on State street between Randolph 
and Twelfth, began operation in 1859. The first 
cable line, on State south to Thirty-ninth, ran 
its initial train in 1882. The first electric line be- 
gan business in 1890, three years before the last 
of the cable lines was built. 


The first Chicago trolley had to be content 
with a suburban field. It began at Ninety-fifth 
Street and Stony Island Avenue and ran to South 
Chicago. Within four years of its opening, how- 
ever, it had driven every horse car out of the 
city. The cable lines succumbed in 1906. 


Of the present elevated system the South Side 
line, to Thirty-ninth street, was the pioneer. It 
began operation in 1892 with steam locomotives. 
The first “L” to start with electric motors was 
the Metropolitan of Chicago in 1895. 


The electric traction system of the United 
States is the product of private enterprise and 
initiative such as has developed all of American 
business. Of the 44,400 miles of trackage only 
about 1 per cent is owned by cities. Service over 
the remaining portion is provided by private 
companies. 


How the Electric Car is Propelled: 


Let us apply the X-Ray, so to speak, to a mod- 
ern electric car and see how “it works.” 

Ii you have passed by the car barns early in 
the morning you have noticed the motormen 
taking out their cars to start the busy day; or 
you may have passed by the car barns late in 
the afternoon and have noticed extra crews get- 
ting the cars ready for the evening “rush hours.” 

Tracks in the street are a familiar sight; you 
call to mind long rows of poles on either side 
from which is suspended, over the track, a shin- 
ing copper wire. When the cars pass, you fre- 
quently see sparks and flashes where the trolley 
wheel (See T. W. in illustration) rolls along the 
wire. You may even notice sparks on the track 
under the car wheels. In stormy weather, you 
may have noticed, simultaneously, violent blue 
and yellow flashes at the trolley wheel and on 
the track under the car wheels, giving evidence 
of the electrical energy passing from the wire 
down the trolley pole to the electric motors 
which make the car wheels revolve. 


You naturally wonder what this energy looks 
like, how it acts and where it goes. No one ever 
saw the electric current, but an inventor, named 
Michael Faraday, noticed that when current was 
forced through a wire it would move a neighbor- 
ing magnet sideways; and that when the posi- 
tion of the magnet was changed to the other side 
of the wire the movement of the magnet was in 
the opposite direction. 


The Motors: 


Faraday arranged the magnet so that it moved 
around and around about a shaft; then, instead 
of one wire and one magnet, he added many 
more about the shaft, and so produced a rotating 
motor. This is the electric motor that turns the 
wheels of a street car,—a motor, which, though 
very intricate, is so compact that it can be built 
into the truck of the car. (See M. in illustration.) 





The Path ot the Current: 


Where does the current go? You have seen 
the sparks under the car wheels on the track, 
and you probably have already guessed, cor- 
rectly, that the current passes down the trolley 
pole (T. P. in illustration) through the car, the 
motors and wheels into the rails and the ground, 
finding its way through the ground (which is 
also a conductor of electricity) back to a copper 
plate buried in*the ground at the power house 
and connected to the generator, thus making a 
complete loop, or circuit, for we have found that 
a complete circuit must be provided or the cur- 
rent cannot be forced to flow at all. The car com- 
pletes the circuit from trolley wire to rail. You 
may wonder why no shock is received when you 
step on the rail carrying current back to the 
power house. 


Were you tall enough to touch the trolley wire 
at that time you would complete the circuit in 
the same manner as the car does, thus furnishing 
a path to the rail for the current, from which a 
shock would be received. 


Workmen are careful, while working on 
charged wires, that their bodies do not form a 
path to the ground for the current. Protective 
devices, such as insulated platforms, rubber 
gloves, etc., interrupt the circuit through which 
the current would otherwise be carried. A bird 
alighting on a charged wire does not receive a 
shock because it is in contact with only one side 
of the circuit. 


The Controller and the 
Starting Resistance: 


This brings us to the explanation of the motor- 
man’s controller (C. in illustration), which is 
simply a device for opening the circuit (break- 
ing the flow of electricity), to stop the car, or 
closing it (completing the circuit), to start the 
car. 


FReeturn Circuit 
—* fo Power House 


HOW A MODERN ELECTRIC STREET CAR OPERATES 


You have noticed when the motorman starts 
his car that he turns the handle of his controller 
a “notch” at a time as the car speeds up. If he 
did otherwise, the immense power available from 
the trolley wire would cause the motor to spin 
the car wheels, like a steam locomotive whose 
engineer has opened the steam throttle too wide. 

The first slight turn, or notch, of the controller 
completes the electric circuit, allowing the cur- 
rent to flow and start the motor, but, before the 
current enters the motor it is led through a num- 
ber of thin iron grids (See R. G. in illustration), 
like lattice work, whose long path offers a large 
resistance to its passage and keeps it small in 
amount. The next slight turn of the controller 
shuts or cuts out some of this resistance, shorten- 
ing the resistance path and therefore letting more 
current flow through the motor, and so on, with 
the next notch, until all of the resistance is 
“shunted” or cut out of the circuit, and the full 
pressure of the electric current is available to 
make the car run at full speed. 


The Air Brake: 


Did you ever notice a steam locomotive pant- 
ing like a runner just after a race? You may 
be surprised to learn that the “pants” in this case 
are not from the run but from the stop. 

When the engineer of the Twentieth Century 
Limited, running at full speed, turns his air brake 
handle into the position called “Emergency,” 
some 96,000 horse-power are instantly loosed by 
the air brakes in stopping the wheels. The com- 
pressed air used to apply the immense braking 
force is automatically replenished by the air 
pump on the locomotive, and it is this air pump 
that puffs or pants after a stop. 

The air brake also necessary for the heavier 
types of electric cars is an identical apparatus, 
and equally as efficient. This air pump (A. P. in 
illustration) is driven by a small electric motor; 
doubtless you have heard it humming away after 
a stop or two, storing compressed air in reser- 
voirs, available for instant use. (A. R. in illustra- 
tion). 

The brake valve handle which the motor- 
man turns with one hand, is probably as fa- 
miliar to you as the controller handle which he 
turns with the other hand. The valve thus op- 
erated allows the air under high pressure to flow 
from the reservoir (A. R. in illustration), to the 
“brake cylinder.” 

From this point the operation is simple; the 
brake cylinder is a cylinder perhaps 8 inches 
to 14 inches in diameter. The air is ad- 
mitted rapidly at one end through perhaps 
a l-inch pipe, and drives slowly before it a “pis- 
ton.” If the pressure in the l-inch pipe is 70 
pounds, the pressure against the piston (in the 
case of the 14-inch piston) is multiplied 196 
times to 14,000 pounds, and it is this immense 
force, further multiplied perhaps 10 times by lev- 
ers, which presses the iron brake shoes against 
the wheels and brings the car to a sudden stop. 

Sounds involved, doesn’t it? A photograph of 
the bottom of a car would present to view an 
array of apparatus, complex, it is true, but neces- 


sary to make the operation of the car simple and 
safe, and each piece of the apparatus can be 
explained as simply as the motor or controller 
or the air brakes. 


Amount of Power Used: 


To start an ordinary car requires 15,000 times 
as much electrical energy as that which brightens 
the filament of the ordinary incandescent lamp, 
or drives the ordinary fan motor. 

If the car is also heated by electricity the en- 
ergy used for that purpose is from 25 per cent to 
50 per cent as much as is used by the motors to 
propel the car. 


Third Rail System: 


Another method of carrying current to the 
electric car, is known as the “third rail system.” 
Instead of an overhead trolley there is a third 
rail on which no wheels pass but a contact brush 
draws the electric current from the third rail into 
the car to the controller in the same manner as 
the trolley wheel does in the trolley wire system. 


Remarkable Efficiency of Electric 
Railway Motors: 


The electric railway motor is vastly more effi- 
cient than the finest steam plant or gasoline en- 
gine; in fact the electric motor wastes only some 
25 per cent of the energy fed to it, using 75 per 
cent in useful work turning the car wheels. The 
best steam turbine or gasoline engine wastes 75 
per cent of the total heat energy fed to it and can 
use only 25 per cent. 


How an Electric Railway 
is Operated: 


Team work, the same kind of team work 
learned on the football or baseball team, takes 
the foremost place in the operation of an elec- 
tric railway. The fact that a man _ holding 
the lowest position in the employ of one of 
the privately operated companies can rise to 
be president of the road or hold others of the 
highest positions, results in these employes striv- 
ing hard. Efficiency and hard work count on 
the electric lines, for unless an employe is ca- 
pable no influence or “pull” will help him. This 
reward for his efforts and the fascination attend- 
ing the furnishing of the public with so import- 
ant a service perhaps accounts for the saying 
“Once a railway man, always a railway man.” 

The dispatcher is the quarterback of the trans- 
portation team. He appoints the crews each to 
their task (the railway man even uses signals) 
and sees that they take the cars forward at the 
best time to do the most good. The American 
people are a riding people and as you know serv- 
ice is mostly needed in the morning and at night, 
during what are called by railway men the “rush 
hours.” (See “car service diagram for typical] 
city electric railway.) No two consecutive days 
seem to be alike. 

It is difficult to foresee delays and keep the 
cars on their schedule, but the dispatcher must 


do everything possible to maintain a satisfactory 
schedule with the tracks and cars that are pro- 
vided by the money risked by investors in the 
enterprise. 


Maintaining the Road in 
Operating Condition: 

The maintenance forces, consisting of the track 
men, the shop men, inspectors, electricians and 
others, are the “trainers” of the railway team. It 
is their work to keep the system in as perfect 
working order as circumstances will permit. For 
this purpose there is an endless stream of sup- 
plies coming in and leaving the storerooms. 

The storekeeper of one of the large electric 
roads in Illinois says that he has to keep in stock 
15,000 different kinds of articles for the main- 
tenance of the property, varying from a track 
spike to a complete railway motor. 

Rolling stock (as the cars are called), track, 
trolley wire and electrical equipment, are sub- 
ject to particularly heavy wear and tear and the 
pole lines, buildings, bridges, etc., representing a 
considerable investment, also require a large ag- 
gregate of painting and repairs. The painting of 
cars costs between $50 and $100 per car every 
year, if the original wood and steel is to be pre- 
served. The mere inspection of cars, in order to 
insure the safety and reliability of all parts, may 
cost $300 per car each year under favorable cir- 
cumstances. The renewal of worn out brake 
shoes, which press down upon and stop the 
wheels, is often the largest single item of expense 
on a small property. 


What the Cars Cost: 


The modern pay-as-you-enter street car or in- 
terurban car does not represent so much money, 
per passenger carried, as a costly limousine, be- 
cause the limousine is designed to create luxury 
for a small number of persons, while the street 
car is designed to carry a large number of per- 
sons comfortably and safely. Nevertheless the 
trolley car with its steel construction, its intricate 
machinery and carefully fitted parts, represents 
quite a snug sum of money. They cost from 
$8,000 to $18,000, which is twice or even three 
times that of five years ago. Modern interurban 
cars cost about $25,000 each. 

In addition to the city electric railway lines, 
there are electric interurban systems traversing 
the state, linking up the cities with smaller com- 
munities and the family districts. These have 
proven of great benefit to the state, providing 
transportation for many communities not fully 
served by the railroads, developing cities and 
towns along their tracks, and giving frequent 
and efficient service. These interurban lines em- 
ploy larger cars than the city lines and do both 
a passenger and freight business. In some lo- 
calities they haul the mail. On a number of 
lines the same conveniences exist as on the 
railroads, such as dining, sleeping and parlor 
cars. 


An innovation of importance in the past few 
years in cities and towns has been the “safety 
car.” This is operated by a single employe, who 
acts both as a motorman and conductor. This 
car is smaller than the “two-man” type of car, 
has four wheels and is equipped with elaborate 
safety devices. It was originated when the high 
costs of operation of the heavier and larger car, 
necessitating two men for operation, caused elec- 
tric railway experts to investigate how expenses 
could be reduced and yet a good and efficient 
service for the public be maintained. 


Safety First: 


Every street railway system, as you know, has 
as its very first aim, the safety of its passengers. 
Every company in fact, has its “Safety First” 
organization, which it holds responsible for its 
safety measures. 

How the electric railways have succeeded is 
shown by the record of one large company which 
in a period of over twelve years has carried two 
billion passengers without a fatal accident. 

To accomplish a record like this requires the 
active co-operation of every employe, foreman, 
and “head of department” in the work of doing 
away with dangerous conditions and the setting 
up of safety regulations as well as help from city 
authorities, car riders, automobilists, and, in fact, 
all of the public. 


Problems of the Street Railway: 


To anyone who has worked in the different 
departments of an electric railway it is a source 
of pride to consider how the expense of upkeep 
and general operation (including taxes) per mile 
can be kept anywhere near equal to the passen- 
ger fares collected per mile, and leave a balance 
to pay the interest on the money invested 
in the enterprise. Certain it is that the young 
people now going to school will soon be 
interested, directly or indirectly, in these prob- 
lems of the present day. A great many will take 
their place in the electric railway industry, 
bringing to bear their technical knowledge in the 
development of better transportation, and more 
valuable still, their knowledge of the value of 
team work and fair play. Many others will also 
invest part of their savings in electric railways, 
either directly or through the banks and insur- 
ance companies and trust companies with whom 
they deposit their savings. 


How Electric Railways are 
Supervised: 


Being a convenience designed for all of the 
people, bordering close to an absolute necessity 
(no one wanting to go back to the days of the 
ox cart or horse and buggy as a method of ordi- 
nary travel), it was found necessary as the elec- 
tric railway industry grew, to have it controlled 
by some form of government regulation. In most 
states this has taken the form of regulation by 


state commissions, which act much as the Fed- 
eral Interstate Commerce Commission does in 
regulating the railroads. These commissions 
have several fixed rules to abide by which may 
be summarized as follows: 


1—See to it that the public is given adequate 
and unbroken service at a just rate of fare. 2— 
Protect the investment that has been made by 
the thousands of persons who have loaned the 
money that makes possible the furnishing of 
service. 3—Correct situations that hinder con- 
tinuous development and improvement of lines 
and equipment, as such untoward conditions 
would be against the public good. 4—Judge 
all matters coming before them impartially and 
without prejudice, for if either the companies or 
the public are dissatisfied with a decision, the 
courts may be asked to review it. 


Where the Passenger’s Fare Goes: 


When you hand a street car conductor your 
fare, where does it go? How does the company 
have to divide up your money in order to meet 
the expense of giving you the ride? 


As has been previously explained it takes a 
small army of persons, all working at some defin- 
ite task, to make possible your ride. Each per- 
son in this army must be paid a wage and should 
obtain his just share of the fare you pay. 

The chart (The Electric Railway Dollar), takes 
a dollar paid in by car riders and divides it in the 
manner it should go if all in that army were be- 
ing paid their wages and the expenses of the road 
were being fully met. It was the failure of the 
roads to earn sufficient money during the war 
and immediately afterwards, experts say, to pay 
all of these wages and expenses, as outlinedinthis 
chart, which led to the serious financial trouble 
affecting the entire electric railway industry of 
the nation. This, they say, was due to the roads 
charging a fixed fare, generally 5 cents, and not 
being able to fix the prices they have to pay for 
money loaned to them and for wages, fuel, equip- 
ment and the many other expenses. This situa- 
tion became so serious that in 460 cities of the 
country it was found necessary to increase the 
fares but in many cases this was done too late 
and some electric lines went entirely out of busi- 
ness, leaving the people of these communities 
without transportation. This worked a great 


THE ELECTRIC RAILWAY DOLLAR 











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How Experts Say a Dollar in Fares Would Be Divided by an Average Properous and Growing Company 
Able to Give Good Service and Paying Ail Necessary Wages and Expenses, 


. 


hardship upon all sther business and upon the 
public. The building of lines, extending of tracks, 
to neighborhoods that needed car service and the 
buying of cars and other equipment, was for a 
considerable time almost entirely stopped. It 
was one of the most difficult situations, probably, 
that any American industry has ever faced, but 
through tremendous effort it is being overcome. 


The chart prepared by experts indicates how 
an ordinary company would divide a dollar re- 
ceived in fares were it prosperous and growing 
and fully able to pay all of the wages and ex- 
penses. It shows that the dollar is divided into 
three big divisions, which are as follows: 


1—WAGES TO EMPLOYES (34 cents of 
each dollar): This represents the number of 
cents of each dollar that would be paid as 
wages to motormen, conductors, track men, 
shop men, office employes, etc. 


2—INTEREST TO INVESTORS (37 cents, 
or 74 cents per year for each dollar the 
road costs):—This is the number of cents 
that would be taken from each dollar to pay 
the wages, or interest, on the great sum of 
money the company has to spend to build the 
tracks and roadbed, put in trolley wires, buy 
street cars, build car barns and power plants. 
As the car company owners, who are known 
as the stockholders, must invest $5 in property 
for each $1 they can expect in a year in fares, 
it can be readily seen that the cost of build- 
ing an electric railway property is tremendous 
and that if a fair wage in the shape of inter- 
est is not paid, the money cannot be obtained 
but would go into other businesses where a 
fair rate of interest, or profit, would be paid. 

3—GENERAL EXPENSES (29 cents) :— 
This includes such items as depreciation, taxes, 
rentals, miscellaneous expenses, injuries and 
damages, materials and supplies and power. 
We will take them up in order and see what 
they mean. 


(a) Depreciation:—There is constantly 
wear and tear on tracks, cars and plants and 
there must be constantly repairs, as well as 
entire replacement of parts. If this were not 
carefully attended to the cars, machinery and 
tracks would soon be merely junk. 

(b) Taxes:—The street railways are heavy 
taxpayers, particularly so when the amount 
they take in as fares is considered in proportion 
to the great sums they must invest in property. 
From the fare of every car rider a certain 
amount must be taken to be turned over to 
the city, county, state and federal governments 
as the share of taxes all industry of a commun- 
ity must pay. This money is used, in the case 
of towns and cities, in making streets, laying 
sewers, building sidewalks, maintaining a po- 
lice force and paying the salaries of men 
elected to office, such as the mayor, city attor- 
ney, aldermen, etc. 


10 


(c) Rentals :—This item includes rents the 
average company must pay for tracks, lands 
and other facilities not directly owned. 

(d) Miscellaneous expenses:—T his in- 
cludes items of operation such as office ex- 
penses, etc. 

(e)—Injuries and damages:—In spite of 

“safety first” efforts, street cars will bump into, 
or be bumped into, by automobiles, wagons, 
etc. There are sometimes other accidents, 
this being an unavoidable result of the neces- 
sity that in furnishing transportation the tracks 
must run through streets largely used, so as 
to make them immediately available to the 
greatest number of people. 


({) Materials and supplies:—The electric 
railways are heavy buyers at all times. This 
money goes for the hundreds of things needed 
to keep the tracks in good condition and the 
cars moving. 


(g)—Power :—This is the money spent for 
electricity, either through developing it at a 
power plant owned by the railway or buying 
it from an electric company. It is what the 
companies pay to “make the cars go.” 


The Rush Hour Problem: 


The chart headed “Car Service Diagram for 
Typical City Electric Railway,” illustrates one 
of the most difficult problems that the electric 
railway companies have to face. That is the 
“rush hour” problem, involving the few hours 
of the morning or late afternoon when people are 
either rushing, as a body, to get to work, or in 
the same fashion, to get home. 


If there were a steady flow of car riders over 
the “waking” period of each 24 hours, the trans- 
portation problem would not be difficult. But 
that is not so. The result is the companies must 
purchase large numbers of cars and other equip- 
ment as well as have large forces of employes, 
who can be used only these “rush hours” of the 
day, tying up great sums of money in an invest- 
ment that is idle and lying in the car barns 20 
out of each 24 hours of the day. 


As an illustration of this big problem the chart 
represents an actual city company compelled to 
use a maximum of 450 cars in its “rush hours” 
and applies particularly to all industrial com- 
munities. The number of cars actually necessary 
to handle traffic at various given hours during 
the day is indicated, this showing the two 
“peaks” or rush periods. 


The chart shows that at 5 a. m. but 30 cars are 
sufficient. At 6 a.m. people are starting to work 
and 120 cars must be on the lines; by 7 a. m. 
there is a great rush on and 390 cars are needed; 
at 7:30 a. m. the “peak” is reached and 450 cars 
must be in operation. But this rush only lasts 
less than a bare hour, but this extra equipment 
must be there during that time. By 9 a. m. 210 


cars will haul all passengers wanting transporta- 
tion and by 10 a. m. 120 cars are sufficient. 

From 10 a. m. until about 4 p. m—6 hours— 
only 120 cars are needed, as compared with 450 
cars during the “rush hour,” and the rest are 
idle. 

About 4 p. m. the shoppers start home and 
again the idle cars must come out of the barns 
with their crews. By 5 p. m. 360 cars are needed 
and by 5:30 p. m. the number must be 435 cars. 
These cars are needed only about half an hour, 
for by 6 p. m. the demand has been reduced to 
420 cars and by 7 p. m., when the majority are 
home at the evening meal, it is only 180. By 
8 p. m. the demand has dropped to 120 and by 
9 p. m. to but 90 cars. From that time on until 
5 a. m. the next morning it drops gradually from 
90 to 30 cars. 


Efforts to bring about an even traffic on street 
railway lines, such as would “iron out” these two — 
“rush hour peaks” have been unsuccessful, inas- 
much as the public demands transportation when 
it wants it, and not as the companies would like 
to give it. 

In the typical case cited by this chart it is 
shown that the riding demand on the part of the 
public results in 80 cars out of each 100 being 
used less than four hours a day. The company 
has to pay just as much for these cars as it does 
for those that “work” and earn 24 hours a day. 
eS a factory in which 100 men are employed, 
80 of whom work and produce less than four 
hours a day, but all of whom demand wages for 
a full day’s labor that they do not perform, and 
you have a similar situation to that involving this 
idle equipment problem of the electric railways. 


Care Seevice DisgRatt For 
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TIME OF DAY. 





Siovemat Uses of This Bulletin: 


pease: Suggested topics for formal or in- 
formal debating: 
1—Resolved: That the Aeroplane will replace 
the Steam Railway. 
2—Resolved: That aside from long distances, 
Electric Car Travel is Preferable to Steam 
Travel. 


Rhetoric, 
Classes: 
1—Make a three minute review of this Bulletin. 
2—The Value of Street Car Service to this 

Community. 
3—How does electricity propel a street car? 
4—The street car and retail trade. 
5—The value of the Interurban system. 
6—How the Local Car System Operates. 
7—The Street Car and City Expansion. 


Oral English, and Current Topics 








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For Additional Bulletins Please Address: 


Illinois Committee on Public Utility. 
x 125 South Clark Street 


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